Incident at Waconia

[splaterwin]

Finally a decent day with sun and wind. Arrived at Waconia south beach around 11:30’ish to find one wind surfer out on water. Launch area seemed to be a bit wind sheltered but white caps were seen just off shore. Before long other wind surfers trickled in but no kitersurfers. Finally another kiter- Kevin showed up. Soon I was rigged and looking for a launch. Kevin said he would drift launch and offered to launch me. Conditions were gusty but very manageable with my 12m RPM. After 40 minutes or so on water Kevin still hadn’t launched so I decided to come in and help. Originally he had rigged his 14m and was starting to pump his 9m when I came in. After discussing conditions he decided to give the 14m a go. Getting him launched seemed difficult and to make a long story short he was picked up and heading toward the shore. South launch has many obstacles to avoid, but a couple of the worst obstacles are the 4’1/2 poles at the edge of beach next to water line. As luck would have it Kevin was heading full tilt at one of these poles. He hit the pole and then spun around it 2 or 3 times like a tether ball. During the spin or soon after he had enough smarts to pull leash and kite depowered. Kite came down on other side of cabana umbrella with lines draped over it. If he hadn’t pulled leash things would have been much worse. Kevin seemed to be moving but had a major cut just under his nose and across his upper lip, he also said his arm was bothering him. Wind surfer Andy saw the carnage and called 911. He told Kevin to lay still until medical help arrived. Soon police and medical folks were onsite tending to his wounds. Last I saw of Kevin he was in the ambulance and off to the hospital. I gathered up his gear, locked it in his car and one of the police officers took his keys to him.
Luckily I gave Kevin my phone number while he was in the ambulance and he called me to say he would be fine. After x-rays and 25 stitches to his upper lip he would live to kite another day.

[Lee_Uptown]

Wow. I'm glad Kevin is okay and had no other serious injuries. I was at Bellaire today, and it was boy... gusty ugly... Is this the nature of NE winds? Anyway, speedy recovery Kevin, I hope nothing too serious happened to your arm.

[Jason_L]

Wow, that is really scary. Glad you are alright Kevin. That definitely could have gotten a lot worse. Hope you recover quickly.

[nowak046]

Hello fellow surfers and kiters. I am doing well and onto a speedy recover. My right forearm looks like Popeyes ha ha....some large bruising and swelling but better than a break! As for the stiches somehow I caught my chin on the pole without busting any bones or teeth out. I have to be thankfull for wearing a helmet, could have been a real bad situation otherwise. CT scan confirms the was no head or neck injury.

I would personally like to thank Pat for taking care of my gear while I was getting packed into the Ambulance. It is great to see just how generous everyone in the kiting community is, even the ones who aren't local to the area.

I would also like to appologize for my lack of judgement in the high gusty winds we had today. I take full responsibility for my actions and hope that this incident does not lead to the loss of this great access point. I look forward to getting back on the water as soon as my stitches heal, learned a valuable lesson today, one that won't easily be forgotten!
Be safe out there,
-Kevin

[Tighe]

Glad to hear you're ok.

[Kevinousdigian]

Thanks for sharing how serious things can get as we are all driven to get out on the lake asap. We're thankful you had quick instincts to pull the safety and that it released. Heal up.

Kevin

[Iceman]

Hi Kevin
I am very happy you are going to be ok. I do have a question. Hopefully to help me and others avoid the same thing.
When did things go bad? Right away or when you were getting your feet in your straps?
Please teach me how to avoid this.
Dave

[nowak046]

Good Question Dave,
We were having trouble getting the kite to launch properly up the side of the window(The way most people bring it up to noon before they strap in). However once the kite started to catch wind (going about half way up the window) it immediately folded in on itself, possibly from a crosswind, when it recovered it had been pushed to the lower center part of the wind window, which unfortunately for me caused it to hot launch. This lifted me out of the water and sent me flying towards the only post on the beach.
So to answer your question things went bad from the start. To avoid this in the future I would say give yourself plenty of room to make mistakes.
Hope this helps.

[Iceman]

Hi Kevin
Here is wind report from Sunday I think you should buy a lottery ticket you are very lucky to be here. I hope you heal fast. I look forward to meeting you out there. Good story for the camp fire. (Now that’s a kitemare)

15 May 8:53 pm NE 14G22
15 May 7:53 pm NE 13G23
15 May 6:53 pm NNE 13G26
15 May 5:53 pm NNE 16G28
15 May 4:53 pm NE 18G30
15 May 3:53 pm NE 18G26
15 May 2:53 pm NNE 14G22
15 May 1:53 pm N 16G26
15 May 12:53 pm NNE 17G26
15 May 11:53 am NE 18G25
15 May 10:53 am NNE 13G25
15 May 9:53 am NE 15G23
15 May 8:53 am NE 15G23

Dave

[rookie]

Hey Kevin, Im glad your ok! Just a thought....Maybe a possibility of the kite collapsing was from not enough air in the kite? Ive had that happen to me a couple of times, Where the kite would collapse under a load when the kite was way under deflated. Ive also seen it happen to other kiters as well.

Quick healin,
ride on ~

[tom_latcham]

Wow, poles don't give much. That could have been much worse. When I saw the wind Sunday, I thought it had too much east in it to be good at Waconia and went to Washington. Glad I did now. Glad you will live to kite again Kevin. I used an 11 at Washington. It was not enough in the lulls. But was just right most of the time. Lets all be cafefull. We don't want the authorities thinking kiting is dangerous. We are already banned from National lake shore around great lakes. How long before they try to shut it down everywhere.
Lets all be extra carefull this year
Tom Latcham

[toyletbowl]

Hey Kevin,

First...glad you are recovering and hope you heal fast.
Second...also glad you are taking full responsibility and I'm sure you're gone over this many times what could have been worse and what can you do different.
Third...I have some questions if you don't mind.

I'm an outsider to the area (Madison), but was talking with a friend today and this came up.

Not sure why your kite folded, but did you let go of the bar as soon as the kite started to power up again? I'm almost 99% sure that you probably did not. This is a very common response to hold on to try to save the kite, etc. etc.

We teach a lot of students and the first thing taught is to let go of the bar. Second thing is if still in danger, release to the safety. 3rd is that if the safety didn't fully depower and still in danger, completely release the kite.

Back to the first step. If riders just let go of the bar, with modern high depower kites, there's very little if any pull as the kite just falls to the water. It's amazing even in overpowered conditions how affective this is as a first reaction/response.

I'm not placing any blame on other instructors (if you had training). My guess is that this was also taught since it's a common practice to just let go of the bar. However, as trainers, we can only do so much to help show all the steps. THEN...it's the accountability of the riders to practice, understand and have these movements become second nature.

We had a guy 2 weeks ago coming on shore and bent down to put his board down and his kite went right across the top of the sky and of course he pulled in to try to handle it and got lofted about 15 feet and landed. I yelled...let go of the bar and the kite just fell with no problems. He was OK, but had a huge bruise on his side. Had he just let go of the bar once the kite was moving across the window, he would have not been lofted. He was taught be me personally so I know he was taught to do this, but sometimes it really does take a close call to make it take hold.

This post in no way is meant to point any fingers, but to hopefully help you and others to remember the following....

Let go of the bar.
Let go of the bar.
Let go of the bar.
Let go of the bar.

If still in trouble, release to the safety. If still in trouble, release the kite.

Let me know if I'm on target, or if something else happened.

Good winds.

Bob
http://www.kiteridersllc.com

[Nathan B]

Kevin, glad you are ok.

Waconia is not a beginner friendly spot. I understand Kevin you have been riding a year but you are still a beginner.

biggest thing is knowing your riding ability and being able to adjust and know launch and riding conditions.

it is obvious that the person who launched Kevin was towards shore with kite in hand and kevin was in the water? thats a recipe for disaster! this accident could have been prevented if the kite was towards the water so you would have been pulled out to the lake vs to shore..... or please correct me if I am wrong and the person launching the kite walked out first which would have ment you sent your kite back to shore.
Launcher should always be in the water first with the kite pulling the pilot out away from shore..... I cant express how many times I see ALOT of people here in MN launching incorrectly that way.
Both a launcher and pilot should be experienced! I would rather self launch my kite then have a inexperienced launcher dealing with my kite and my life in their hands.

I am glad you are ok Kevin! this could have been alot worse.

[johnz]

I've been biting my tongue, but after this incident, I have to heartily agree with Nate.

I feel bad because I don't want to bash Kevin - I truly am sorry for the injuries you sustained and I know you already feel bad.

But, if Nate's assumptions are true - mainly that the kite was launched inland of the rider, Kevin has only been riding for a year, etc. it such a gross mistake that it really was negligent.

I've been kiting for over 12 years and am, admittedly one of the slowest learners in the sport. We've all made mistakes and have had incidents, but actions like this are just asking for it.

I think Waconia, under very certain conditions and on non-crowded days, could be o.k. for a lesson - i.e. if someone is taking out on a jet ski in the middle of the lake, away from traffic, being supervised, etc.

But it seems like I've seen a lot of riders with a couple years under their belt attempting to ride in advanced situations - The South launch at Waconia, side shore gusty winds, the wind shadow from the embankment just east of the beach, all the obstructions on the beach, the lack of shallow water there, etc. make this a truly tricky place to ride - I drove an extra hour to White Bear that day for those exact reasons.

Then, to either skip or not know the proper way to launch a kite is really unexcusable. I'm sorry for my bluntness.

I hate organizations, I have resisted this whole 'committee' thing mainly out of laziness and inherent faith that people will accept this responsibility seriously and police themselves. I think I am going over to the dark side now...

I wish there was another alternative...

I'll be at your meeting, Nate, with bells on!

[Professor Robae']

Well said John. I too have been biting my tongue on this. It would really suck if we lost our Waconia access. Just imagine how the authorities would react if we had a 'serious' accident or an accident that involved another lake user. Think about how quickly this incident unfolded. Now think about how many close calls there have been on Waconia. No easy answers, so I too look forward to the meeting.

[Lee_Uptown]

Yup yup, you folks are correct and I think this is good enough to get the message through to Kevin and other newbies. If I were in his shoes now, I'd feel super bad and guilty about the incident. He's already hurt and by now should have learned a lot. I say, let's move forward and pursue the right course of actions to preserve our privileged lake access. Meeting time it is.

[splaterwin]

Kevin I’m so sorry about the accident. I do blame myself and have been feeling a bit stupid for my actions. We did try launching with kite off shore but wind shadow on strong NE hampered that launch stance with kite low on water. We tried multiple times with kite off shore but switched to what worked for me and that was the recipe for disaster. I feel terrible about what happened, I know better and put Kevin in a dangerous launch stance. I apologize to all and especially Kevin for my stupidity.

Pat

[nowak046]

Hey guys,
Quick update. Stitches came out Monday, scars look decent and were smaller than I had anticipated. Arm is back to 100% and the rest of my body is ready for action! Recovery went quickly. Learned a great lesson here and have a visual reminder for it.
-Kevin